The Pirates of Penzance Junior (The Oppits)

The junior adaptation of The Pirates of Penzance was a joyous romp from start to finish when presented by this very talented youth group. St Judes had once again been transformed from rehearsal room to theatre in an imaginative way to accommodate the 30 or so young people involved. The clever staging was the deck of a pirate ship and easily changed to a beach in act 1, then changed to the old ruined castle and graveyard in act 2. The children ranged  between 8 and 16 years of age and they presented a performance with flair and understanding well in advance of their ages.

This G & S operetta normally lasts 2-2 ¼ hours with dialogue and music but had been adapted for juniors to last just over the hour. In realistic terms this was too short (this group could have coped with much more) and missed important humour and some wonderful songs. With most songs stopped at one or two verses, some songs cut along with much of the clever dialogue, I missed the essential feel of this great G & S operetta, but this is the fault of the adaptation, not the production. The CD of music provided by the rights holder added to the frenetic pace of the show, with orchestration at such a pace, and I don’t mean the patter songs, that words were difficult to distinguish and being taped music there could be no slowing for dramatic effect. But, this did not detract from the excellent individual performance and the fun and excellent singing from the whole company. The colourful costumes from… the pirates, beautiful daughters and the very amusing policemen were a delight.

It is difficult for me to pick any one performance as they were all extremely good, but Bethany Perrins as Ruth was outstanding. Bethany sang and presented the complex humour of this (older) part with great skill and talent and I appreciated her performance immensely!

The directors and MD took a group of young people, taught them to love the wonderful melodies and humour of G &S and they responded by giving it their all and enjoying themselves. Well done Weston Oppitts, everyone should be very proud of this production and the attention to detail from cast, production team, stage crew and front of house.

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